Using these variant rules for Swords & Wizardry, you can create characters who are orcs, bugbears, goblins, gnolls, and half-orcs. Classes available are Barbarian, Shaman, Witch Doctor, Sneak, and Warrior.

This is very much a first draft, with more to be added. Please feel free to comment. Suggestions & feedback are very welcome.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Created by +Greg Gillespie , this is the one website I use before every gaming session.

I use it to help populate the tavern where my adventurers base their explorations of the Barrowmaze.

It's so quick and easy, and creates such delightful results.

My players are new to the idea of hirelings & henchmen, and have taken to it with gusto. The first two sessions a 0 level Man at Arms armed with a spear and a deathwish literally saved the group's bacon on multiple occasions. He had the hottest dice at the table, and was bathing himself in glory until overwhelmed by a large group of skeletons towards the end of the second night.

Having a couple of red shirts getting eaten by ghouls, pulled apart by zombies, or having their flesh ripped off by carnivorous flies really sets the tone for the night.

Plus, the (always cowardly) torch bearers running off with loot in the middle of tough fights adds to the fun.

I've got a new group of hirelings prepped for tonight's action. Which ones will survive? Perhaps if a single man-at-arms can actually make it through 2 sessions I will promote him to Fighter, 1st level.

Friday, April 12, 2013

In anticipation of the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day on April 17th, I am releasing parts of the variant rules system I am working on. Here I present the Shaman Class for humanoid characters. Let me know what you think!

Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Finally! Today I finished a campaign map for my Erinmoor campaign using GIMP.
It's not perfect, but it's the best I could do in about 12 hours haah! I had never so much as opened Photoshop or GIMP before this project.

My original map was hand drawn:

Straight outa the 80's

After reading through some tutorials at the cartographersguild.com I downloaded GIMP and started trying to make a fancy fantasy map.

The tutorial I used is great, although it is a little dated and the newer versions of GIMP have some changes. The thread for it is HERE.

Now to print one up for the group tonight! Maybe crumple it up and spill some tea on it or something first...

Saturday, April 6, 2013

In anticipation of the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day on April 17th, I am releasing parts of the variant rules system I am working on. Here I present the Barbarian Class for humanoid characters. Let me know what you think!

Enemy
of Civilization: Humans, elves, half-elves, dwarves, and halflings inspire a special hatred in
humanoid Barbarians, granting the Barbarian
a +1
damage bonus against such foes.

Chop
'em Down:
Upon landing the killing blow, a Barbarian
may make an additional attack against an enemy within 10'.

Shock
& Awe: At
3rd
level,
and upon completing a successful Chop
'em Down,
Barbarians can put the fear of death into lesser opponents. Creatures
of equal or lesser Hit Die to the Barbarian who witness a successful
Chop 'em
Down attack
will fight at -1 to hit and damage for 2 rounds. In addition, if the odds of the
fight are turning against the Barbarian's opponents, they
must make a morale check or flee from the Barbarian until out of combat range.

Berserker:
At 5th
level
Barbarians
may enter a berserker
state once per day. While
berserk, the Barbarian
receives a +2 damage bonus, at a penalty of 2 to his AC. While
berserk, the Barbarian
is immune to fear. Berserkers cannot flee from combat, never fail
morale checks, and fight until combat ends or they die. Berserkers
must rest for one hour after the end of combat, or receive a penalty
of 2 on all rolls and move at ½ speed until
rested.
It takes one combat round for a Barbarian
to go berserk, during which time he may be engaged in combat. This
effect stacks with Enemy of Civilization.

Thursday, April 4, 2013

My D&D & OSR experience so far.
Two things happened today which caused me to reflect on the old school renaissance, D&D, and my history with the game.

First, I received from Ebay an original Moldvay Basic Set! For the price of a pizza dinner, I now have the box that started it all for me, 30 years ago. Also arriving was a long-looked-for copy of Gygax Magazine.

That was a hoot to read, for so many reasons. I really, really hope they knock it out of the park with D&D Next. It's kind of like when your favorite sports team with a rich history gets bought by an idiot nouveau-riche owner who cant figure out what went wrong after he got it. I really hope Next is a smashing success, and that it is a return to old school play elements that makes it so.

This got me thinking about my D&D experience, and wanting to share it with you.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

In anticipation of the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day on April 17th, I am releasing parts of the variant rules system I am working on and hope to complete by the 17th. Starting with the Title Page & Introduction. Let me know what you think!

For over forty years, adventurers have penetrated into the wildlands, dungeons, and caverns of thousands of campaign worlds. In many cases, their first adversaries in these adventures have been the savage humanoid races. Treated as little more than walking loot bags, these creatures have been slaughtered by the thousands in nearly every 1st to 4th level adventure ever published. But who are these creatures, these twisted cousins of the civilized human and demi-human races?

Born in the harshest environments, raised among brutality unimagined in the cities and shires of civilization, these creatures manage to survive and even thrive under the most difficult circumstances. Outside the borders of civilization, among the vast wildlands and deep underground worlds, the humanoid races hold sway against both the forces of civilization and innumerable monsters & terrors. Within their tribes and nations, the humanoids forge their own societies, conquer vast territories both above and beyond ground, and challenge the forces of human and demi-human civilization for mastery of the world.

Far from being the ignorant savages they are often portrayed as, the humanoid races are members of complex societies with their own histories, traditions, and heroes. Among these societies, individuals often rise far above their kin, accomplishing acts of heroic bravery and ruthless cunning-gaining power, prestige, and wealth along the way.

As a player in Blood & Battle, you will have the opportunity to play humanoid characters, pitting them against both the civilized races and the monsters and terrors of the wildlands. As a referee, you will be able to create a campaign world which begins outside of the borders of the civilized lands on your map. These vast areas are populated with the humanoid races, and they await only your imagination to make them come alive.

Blood & Battle 1st Edition - Basic is a variant rules system based on the Swords & Wizardry Complete Rules set. It is designed to take characters from 1st-5th level. Within these rules you will find the tools needed to create unique humanoid characters and the campaign worlds in which to play them. Blood and Battle is compatible with the Swords & Wizardry rules set (available as a download from http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/?page_id=18 and online at http://www.d20swsrd.com/ ) as well as other rules sets based on the original version of the worlds most famous fantasy roleplaying game.

Monday, April 1, 2013

A Dungeon Master's Guilt.

Since our last gaming session on Saturday (Swords & Wizardry), I have been haunted by a feeling of guilt at the way I handled the evening's penultimate encounter.

The party of (6) 1st level adventurers had pushed far into the Barrowmaze. They had lost one member already, the thief, in a zombie infested pit trap. They (conveniently) found another a few rooms later, hiding in a corner alcove, the last survivor of a group of tomb robbers.

They were farther in than they probably should have been, and had battled 8 groups of undead, mongrels, and centipedes, with almost no loot found. They kept saying "1 more room, just 1 more".